Esther 3, Haman's Vendetta

Esther is now queen.  Her uncle, Mordecai, has spent time at the king's gate, in support of Esther.

Esther 3: 1-2, Haman

After these events, King Xerxes honored Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, elevating him and giving him a seat of honor higher than that of all the other nobles. All the royal officials at the king's gate knelt down and paid honor to Haman, for the king had commanded this concerning him. But Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor.

We are introduced here to the villain of our story.  A man, Haman, identified as an Agagite, is promoted above all other officials in the kingdom. (We are not given a reason for this promotion.) This promotion comes with a requirement that all officials bow down to Haman. But Mordecai, presumably still at the king's gate, does not bow down.  

Embedded in this brief summary are several questions. Why does Mordecai refuse to bow down and what occurs that brings this to Haman's notice? Did Mordecai believe that bowing down to Haman was some form of idolatry? (Bowing down to an official was not, by itself, an act of idolatry; David bowed down to Saul in 1 Samuel 24: 8.) Jewish tradition makes much of the identification of Haman as an Agagite, for Agag was an Amalekite king captured by Saul in 1 Samuel 15: 7-8. Are we to read into this story the long-run warfare between the Israelites and the Amalekites? Flavius Josephus (Antiquities of the Jews, Book XI) claims that Haman was an Amalekite who hated the Jews because they had killed his people.

Esther 3: 3-6, Anger at the Jews

Then the royal officials at the king's gate asked Mordecai, "Why do you disobey the king's command?" Day after day they spoke to him but he refused to comply. Therefore they told Haman about it to see whether Mordecai's behavior would be tolerated, for he had told them he was a Jew.

When Haman saw that Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor, he was enraged. Yet having learned who Mordecai's people were, he scorned the idea of killing only Mordecai. Instead Haman looked for a way to destroy all Mordecai's people, the Jews, throughout the whole kingdom of Xerxes.

Haman discovers Mordecai's nationality and makes plans to exterminate all Jews. This attempt at genocide, to kill all the Jews, is the first of many such attempts over two-and-a-half millennia. Even today there are some who wish to exterminate the descendants of Jacob. (I write a first draft of this blog in November 2023, shortly after the massacre of Jews by Hamas on October 7.) Haman's attempt at exterminating the Jews, and his dramatic failure in that attempt, make this a favorite book of the Jews for centuries. 

Esther 3: 7-9, Genocide

In the twelfth year of King Xerxes, in the first month, the month of Nisan, they cast the (that is, the lot) in the presence of Haman to select a day and month. And the lot fell on the twelfth month, the month of Adar.
 

Then Haman said to King Xerxes, "There is a certain people dispersed and scattered among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom whose customs are different from those of all other people and who do not obey the king's laws; it is not in the king's best interest to tolerate them. If it pleases the king, let a decree be issued to destroy them, and I will put ten thousand talents of silver into the royal treasury for the men who carry out this business."

We are now into the twelfth year of the reign of Xerxes, some five years after Esther's coronation. Haman asks permission to destroy all the Jews and follows the request with a large bribe. Included in the request is a statement that the Jews don't obey the king's laws, a conflation of the Jews' insistence on worshiping one God. (That theme will also appear in the book of Daniel.)  When granted his request, Haman chooses the date of extermination by tossing lots. The lot falls on the month of Adar (February/March.)  The word for "lot" is "pur" and so the date chosen will later be known as Purim.

Ten thousand talents of silver is a significant sum. If Haman is not exaggerating the size of the offer, this is probably about 375 tons (says Huey.)

Esther 3: 10-11, Enemy of the Jews

So the king took his signet ring from his finger and gave it to Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews. "Keep the money," the king said to Haman, "and do with the people as you please."

The king agrees to Haman's request and naively passes on the decree, unaware of the consequences of Haman's vendetta. Commentators agree that the king's statement, "Keep the money", is a cultural courtesy and, as in other situations, was expected to be refused by Haman. Haman presumably plans to make up his bribe by plundering the Jews.

Esther 3: 12-15, Enemy of the Jews

Then on the thirteenth day of the first month the royal secretaries were summoned. They wrote out in the script of each province and in the language of each people all Haman's orders to the king's satraps, the governors of the various provinces and the nobles of the various peoples. These were written in the name of King Xerxes himself and sealed with his own ring.

Dispatches were sent by couriers to all the king's provinces with the order to destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews--young and old, women and little children--on a single day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar, and to plunder their goods. A copy of the text of the edict was to be issued as law in every province and made known to the people of every nationality so they would be ready for that day.

Spurred on by the king's command, the couriers went out, and the edict was issued in the citadel of Susa. 

The king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Susa was bewildered.

The decree is sent out to all the satrapies and provinces of the kingdom. Huey says that provinces were divisions of satrapies which were themselves divisions of the empire. Esther 1: 1 gives 127 provinces; the number of satrapies was probably about two dozen (ancient records differ.)

The chapter ends with a poignant statement that as the two buddies, king and Haman, sit down to have a drink together, the capital city (and presumably the rest of the empire) are confused by this strange decree.